Goodbye, Lunar Gateway: NASA ditches Moon station for Moon base

NASA's ambitious plans to build a space station in orbit of the Moon are officially on hold, administrator Jared Isaacman said Tuesday, with the space agency instead skipping the orbital habitat in favor of building a permanent base on the Lunar surface. 

Isaacman made the announcement during the opening keynote for NASA's Ignition Day event during which the space agency was providing updates on a number of Artemis-related initiatives and Trump's National Space Policy.

"It should not be much of a surprise that we intend to pause Gateway in its current form and focus on building lunar infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the surface," Isaacman told attendees. "We will pivot agency talent and hardware already working on Gateway to the surface or other programs."

However, suspension of the Gateway project - which would have resulted in the construction of the first space station outside of Earth orbit ...